"I think it's an important step, and it's not sex for sex's sake, but it's part of human interaction that makes you more involved in the game world and your characters," Avellone said. "Just like in the real world, sex runs the range from entertainment to a symbol of the depth of feeling between two people, and not having that reflected in a role-playing experience does RPGs an injustice."

Avellone's current project, the upcoming spy-themed RPG Alpha Protocol, has sex scenes of its own. Senior producer Ryan Rucinski told me at E3 2008 that protagonist Michael Thornton can be intimate with many female characters in the game, and that the love scenes are similar to that of BioWare's Mass Effect. If you recall, that particular moment in Mass Effectcaused a bit of a stir early last year. So how does Avellone think that such scenes will be accepted in videogames?

He thought that the acceptance of sex in games will be determined by the acceptance of sex on television.

"I imagine TV's going to be the deciding factor here, not games," he said. "As soon as it's acceptable on mainstream TV, games won't be far behind. But that's my guess."

Considering the outrage over an exposed nipple on TV, it'll probably be a while before that happens.